Hebrew Free Loan of New Jersey – A Brief History
Around 1890 a group of wealthy NJ German Jews founded the Hebrew Free Loan of Newark with a capital contribution of $10,000.
It was located on Belmont Ave and made small loans to the Jews of Newark. The average size interest free loan was about $20. It later moved to a store front on Hawthorne Ave. where it operated for many years. Influential in both its management and operation were Jack and Arthur Slavitt, two prominent lawyers from Newark. About 1955 HFL of Newark abruptly disbursed its capital and closed its doors.
At about the same founding date but in no way related to the above, an organization called the Hebrew Sheltering Home was formed in Newark by purchasing a large home on lower Chancellor Ave.
It had many bedrooms and was run as a “Jewish Boarding Home” offering free food and shelter to Orichim (Jewish wanderers). At the Federations request, Arthur Schechner was asked to visit and learn about this operation. He soon became Chairman of the Board and worked with R. Oscar Kline of Newark to run the Home. It was a worthy charity but it’s need was diminishing and soon became moribund. About 1980 the Board decided to disband, and the house was sold for about $150,000.
With no functioning Board and no designated need, Arthur invested the money while looking for a use. About 1995 Arthur discovered some archives of the old HFL and decided to reorganize and reopen, funded by the money from the Hebrew Sheltering Home.
He gathered some influential members of the Community- Martin Fox, Arthur Brody, Alan Bildner, Ozzie Lax, Murray Weill, Ben Perlmutter etc.- and a Board was formed and brief bylaws written. The money from the sale of the Hebrew Sheltering Home had grown to about $400,000 and was used to fund the new venture as a functioning committee of The Jewish Family Service. HFLNJ soon spun off to be a growing independent agency of the Federation and, over time, expanded its service field to additionally include Central NJ, Heart of NJ (Monmouth), Patterson and parts of Bergen County. After 23 years as the founding Chair, Arthur retired in 2019 and handed the gavel over to Judge Leo Gordon.
In March 2025
HFLNJ moved into beautiful new expanded offices in Roseland, New Jersey, supported by a substantial charitable gift from Martin Heller. Dating back to its origin over 125 years ago, Hebrew Free Loan of NJ is quite possibly the oldest active agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro West.